LAND SETTLEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 455, 13 March 1909, Page 10

LAND SETTLEMENT.

Sir, —Many of your readers would be glad to note from your issue of February 27 that tho Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, is in favour of a policy of, in the cutting up of largo estates for closer settlement, of dividing the same into smaller areas than in the past. Comparisons, therefore, in this instance may not prove out of place. The census of tho United States for 1900 gives the number of farms under cultivation at 5,739,657, with 10,385,705 working them; average , size of farms, 146 acres. This at least must find favour among our socialistic friends, also giving ample proof of the soundness of the Homestead Act of 160 acres free to settlers. Further, from the same source it is interesting, and especially to tho old soldiers, to know that the sacrifices they made to free the slaves were not in vain, for wo learn from the samo reports, of the 4,000,000 slaves owned by others having no rights and no responsibilities, these owned in 1900 73,352 fajuis, worked by 231,408 hands. They also leased, as farmers, 762,00( acres, and owning church property value: at £5,000,000. In 18G2 these people owned nothing, and could own nothing, and 83 per cent, were totally uneducated, whereas in 1900 over GO per cent, were educated, the natural inference being that small areas of farming lands havo gone a long way towards bringing about these results.—l am, etc. CAPTAIN HARRY ANDREWS.